assassination
the premeditated act of killing someone suddenly or secretively, especially a prominent person: The meticulous way in which the journalist's assassination was carried out has led to suspicions that his killers were professionals working for state security.
the act of destroying or harming treacherously and viciously: They went after me with everything they had, engaging in character assassination and in destroying my reputation—a complete fabrication and frame-up.
Origin of assassination
1Other words from assassination
- coun·ter·as·sas·si·na·tion, noun
Words Nearby assassination
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use assassination in a sentence
I sat through a ludicrous number of kidnappings, plane crashes and assassination attempts involving various Ewings.
To detox from the news, I binge-watched ‘Dallas.’ It was more than just fun. | Sibbie O'Sullivan | January 20, 2021 | Washington PostThey were not hardcore extremists with a well-developed project such as a bombing or an assassination, the kind of threat FBI agents monitor with intercepts and informants and in chatrooms.
Domestic Terrorism: A More Urgent Threat, but Weaker Laws | by Sebastian Rotella | January 8, 2021 | ProPublicaHis mother and father were at Ebenezer when they learned of their eldest son’s assassination.
Ebenezer Baptist: MLK’s church makes new history with Warnock victory | DeNeen L. Brown | January 6, 2021 | Washington PostNow, exactly two months before his assassination, he delivered a sermon with an uncannily prescient message.
Ebenezer Baptist: MLK’s church makes new history with Warnock victory | DeNeen L. Brown | January 6, 2021 | Washington PostJohnson later told the Los Angeles Times that the assassination “was one of the most devastating moments in my life.”
Rafer Johnson, who won Olympic decathlon in 1960, dies at 86 | Harrison Smith | December 3, 2020 | Washington Post
assassination was something that occurred in other countries, other centuries.
The JFK Assassination: The Long Weekend That Never Ended | Malcolm Jones | November 1, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTCase Closed: Oswald and the assassination of JFK author Gerald Posner reports.
There was only one book about which he never wrote back– the 1993 Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of JFK.
assassination and incendiarism were the common instruments of this diabolical association of fanaticism and bigotry.
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. | E. Farr and E. H. Nolanassassination, as recommended by the modern Hamilcar, is by no manner of means to our taste.
assassination, however, rather than duel, seems to have been the word applicable to the combat.
Highways and Byways in The Border | Andrew Langassassination, however, finally convinced him: his head was exhibited over the Gate of the Shambles at Granada for thirty years.
The Moors in Spain | Stanley Lane-PooleSeeing this, and conscious of his maladministration of the government, assassination of Apollonides.
The Histories of Polybius, Vol. II (of 2) | Polybius
Browse